Habakkuk 3:19

3:19 The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. ¹ 

He gives me the agility of a deer; ² 

he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. ³ 

(This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.) ⁴ 

Habakkuk 2:15

2:15 “You who force your neighbor to drink wine ⁵  are as good as dead ⁶  –

you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, ⁷ 

so you can look at their genitals. ⁸ 

Habakkuk 2:18

2:18 What good ⁹  is an idol? Why would a craftsman make it? ¹⁰ 

What good is a metal image that gives misleading oracles? ¹¹ 

Why would its creator place his trust in it ¹² 

and make ¹³  such mute, worthless things?

Habakkuk 2:2

The Lord Assures Habakkuk

2:2 The Lord responded: ¹⁴ 

“Write down this message! ¹⁵  Record it legibly on tablets,

so the one who announces ¹⁶  it may read it easily. ¹⁷ 

Habakkuk 3:2

3:2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; ¹⁸ 

I am awed, ¹⁹  Lord, by what you accomplished. ²⁰ 

In our time ²¹  repeat those deeds; ²² 

in our time reveal them again. ²³ 

But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! ²⁴ 

Habakkuk 2:7

2:7 Your creditors will suddenly attack; ²⁵ 

those who terrify you will spring into action, ²⁶ 

and they will rob you. ²⁷ 

Habakkuk 1:3

1:3 Why do you force me to witness injustice? ²⁸ 

Why do you put up with wrongdoing? ²⁹ 

Destruction and violence confront ³⁰  me;

conflict is present and one must endure strife. ³¹ 

Habakkuk 1:10

1:10 They mock kings

and laugh at rulers.

They laugh at every fortified city;

they build siege ramps ³²  and capture them.

Habakkuk 1:14

1:14 You made people like fish in the sea,

like animals in the sea ³³  that have no ruler.

Habakkuk 1:16

1:16 Because of his success ³⁴  he offers sacrifices to his throw net

and burns incense to his dragnet; ³⁵ 

for because of them he has plenty of food, ³⁶ 

and more than enough to eat. ³⁷ 

Habakkuk 2:5-6

2:5 Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! ³⁸ 

His appetite ³⁹  is as big as Sheol’s; ⁴⁰ 

like death, he is never satisfied.

He gathers ⁴¹  all the nations;

he seizes ⁴²  all peoples.

The Proud Babylonians are as Good as Dead

2:6 “But all these nations will someday taunt him ⁴³ 

and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ⁴⁴ 

‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ⁴⁵ 

(How long will this go on?) ⁴⁶  –

he who gets rich by extortion!’ ⁴⁷ 

Habakkuk 1:2

1:2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help?

But you do not listen!

I call out to you, “Violence!”

But you do not intervene! ⁴⁸ 

Habakkuk 1:11

1:11 They sweep by like the wind and pass on. ⁴⁹ 

But the one who considers himself a god will be held guilty.” ⁵⁰ 

Habakkuk 3:14

3:14 You pierce the heads of his warriors ⁵¹  with a spear. ⁵² 

They storm forward to scatter us; ⁵³ 

they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition. ⁵⁴ 

Habakkuk 2:1

2:1 I will stand at my watch post;

I will remain stationed on the city wall. ⁵⁵ 

I will keep watching, so I can see what he says to me

and can know ⁵⁶  how I should answer

when he counters my argument. ⁵⁷ 

Habakkuk 3:13

3:13 You march out to deliver your people,

to deliver your special servant. ⁵⁸ 

You strike the leader of the wicked nation, ⁵⁹ 

laying him open from the lower body to the neck. ⁶⁰  Selah.

[3:19]  ¹ tn Or perhaps, “is my wall,” that is, “my protector.”

[3:19]  ² tn Heb “he makes my feet like those of deer.”

[3:19]  ³ tn Heb “he makes me walk on my high places.”

[3:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “For the leader, on my stringed instruments.”

[2:15]  ⁵ tn No direct object is present after “drink” in the Hebrew text. “Wine” is implied, however, and has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:15]  ⁶ tn On the term הוֹי (hoy) see the note on the word “dead” in v. 6.

[2:15]  ⁷ tc Heb “pouring out your anger and also making drunk”; or “pouring out your anger and [by] rage making drunk.” The present translation assumes that the final khet (ח) on מְסַפֵּחַ (misapeakh, “pouring”) is dittographic and that the form should actually be read מִסַּף (missaf, “from a bowl”).

[2:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “their nakedness,” a euphemism.

[2:18]  ⁹ tn Or “of what value.”

[2:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “so that the one who forms it fashions it?” Here כִּי (ki) is taken as resultative after the rhetorical question. For other examples of this use, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 73, §450.

[2:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “or a metal image, a teacher of lies.” The words “What good is” in the translation are supplied from the previous parallel line. “Teacher of lies” refers to the false oracles that the so-called god would deliver through a priest. See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 126.

[2:18]  ¹² tn Heb “so that the one who forms his image trusts in it?” As earlier in the verse, כִּי (ki) is resultative.

[2:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “to make.”

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “the Lord answered and said.” The redundant expression “answered and said” has been simplified in the translation as “responded.”

[2:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “[the] vision.”

[2:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “reads from.”

[2:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “might run,” which here probably means “run [through it quickly with one’s eyes],” that is, read it easily.

[3:2]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “your report,” that is, “the report concerning you.”

[3:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I fear.” Some prefer to read, “I saw, Lord, what you accomplished” (cf. NEB).

[3:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “your work.”

[3:2]  ²⁰ tn Heb “in the midst of years.” The meaning of the phrase, which occurs only here in the OT, is uncertain (cf. NIV “in our day”; NEB, NASB “in the midst of the years”).

[3:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “revive it” (i.e., “your work”).

[3:2]  ²² tn Heb “make known.” The implied object is “your deeds”; the pronoun “them,” referring to “deeds” in the previous line, was employed in the translation to avoid redundancy. The suffix on the form חַיֵּיהוּ (khayyehu, “revive it”) does double duty in the parallelism.

[3:2]  ²³ tn Heb “in turmoil remember [to show] compassion.”

[2:7]  ²¹ tn Heb “Will not your creditors suddenly rise up?” The rhetorical question assumes the response, “Yes, they will.” The present translation brings out the rhetorical force of the question by rendering it as an affirmation.

[2:7]  ²² tn Heb “[Will not] the ones who make you tremble awake?”

[2:7]  ²³ tn Heb “and you will become their plunder.”

[1:3]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Why do you make me see injustice?”

[1:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Why do you look at wrongdoing?”

[1:3]  ²⁷ tn Heb “are before.”

[1:3]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and there is conflict and strife he lifts up.” The present translation takes the verb יִשָּׂא (yisa’) in the sense of “carry, bear,” and understands the subject to be indefinite (“one”).

[1:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “they heap up dirt.” This is a reference to the piling up of earthen ramps in the process of laying siege to a fortified city.

[1:14]  ³³ tn The Hebrew word רֶמֶשׂ (remesh) usually refers to animals that creep, but here the referent seems to be marine animals that glide through the water (note the parallelism in the previous line). See also Ps 104:25.

[1:16]  ³⁷ tn Heb “therefore.”

[1:16]  ³⁸ sn The fishing implements (throw net and dragnet) represent Babylonian military might. The prophet depicts the Babylonians as arrogantly worshiping their own power (sacrifices…burns incense, see also v. 11b).

[1:16]  ³⁹ tn Heb “for by them his portion is full [or, “fat”].”

[1:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “and his food is plentiful [or, “fat”].”

[2:5]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “Indeed wine betrays a proud man and he does not dwell.” The meaning of the last verb, “dwell,” is uncertain. Many take it as a denominative of the noun נָוָה (navah, “dwelling place”). In this case it would carry the idea, “he does not settle down,” and would picture the drunkard as restless (cf. NIV “never at rest”; NASB “does not stay at home”). Some relate the verb to an Arabic cognate and translate the phrase as “he will not succeed, reach his goal.”

[2:5]  ⁴² tn Heb “who opens wide like Sheol his throat.” Here נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) is understood in a physical sense, meaning “throat,” which in turn is figurative for the appetite. See H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 11-12.

[2:5]  ⁴³ sn Sheol is the proper name of the subterranean world which was regarded as the land of the dead. In ancient Canaanite thought Death was a powerful god whose appetite was never satisfied. In the OT Sheol/Death, though not deified, is personified as greedy and as having a voracious appetite. See Prov 30:15-16; Isa 5:14; also see L. I. J. Stadelmann, The Hebrew Conception of the World, 168.

[2:5]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “he gathers for himself.”

[2:5]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “he collects for himself.”

[2:6]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Will not these, all of them, take up a taunt against him…?” The rhetorical question assumes the response, “Yes, they will.” The present translation brings out the rhetorical force of the question by rendering it as an affirmation.

[2:6]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “and a mocking song, riddles, against him? And one will say.”

[2:6]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “Woe [to] the one who increases [what is] not his.” The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe,” “ah”) was used in funeral laments and carries the connotation of death.

[2:6]  ⁴⁸ tn This question is interjected parenthetically, perhaps to express rhetorically the pain and despair felt by the Babylonians’ victims.

[2:6]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “and the one who makes himself heavy [i.e., wealthy] [by] debts.” Though only appearing in the first line, the term הוֹי (hoy) is to be understood as elliptical in the second line.

[1:2]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “deliver.”

[1:11]  ⁵³ tn The precise meaning of v. 11a is uncertain. The present translation assumes the first line further describes the Babylonian hordes, comparing them to a destructive wind. Another option is to understand רוּחַ (ruakh) as “spirit,” rather than “wind,” and take the form וְאָשֵׁם (vÿ’ashem) with what precedes (as suggested by the scribal punctuation). Repointing this form as a geminate verb from שָׁמַם (shamam, “be astonished”), one could then translate the line, “The spirit passed on and departed, and I was astonished.” In this case the line would describe the cessation of the divine revelation which began in v. 5. For a detailed defense of this view, see J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 97-100.

[1:11]  ⁵⁴ tn Heb “and guilty is the one whose strength is his god.” This assumes that אָשֵׁם (’ashem) is a predicate adjective meaning “guilty” and that it relates to what follows.

[3:14]  ⁵⁷ tn Some take “warriors” with the following line, in which case one should translate, “you pierce [his] head with a spear; his warriors storm forward to scatter us” (cf. NIV). The meaning of the Hebrew term פְּרָזוֹ (pÿrazo), translated here “his warriors,” is uncertain.

[3:14]  ⁵⁸ tc Heb “his shafts.” Some emend to “your shafts.” The translation above assumes an emendation to מַטֶּה (matteh, “shaft, spear”), the vav-yod (ו-י) sequence being a corruption of an original he (ה).

[3:14]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “me,” but the author speaks as a representative of God’s people.

[3:14]  ⁶⁰ tn Heb “their rejoicing is like devouring the poor in secret.”

[2:1]  ⁶¹ sn Habakkuk compares himself to a watchman stationed on the city wall who keeps his eyes open for approaching messengers or danger.

[2:1]  ⁶² tn The word “know” is supplied in the translation for clarification.

[2:1]  ⁶³ tn Heb “concerning my correction [or, “reproof”].”

[3:13]  ⁶⁵ tn Heb “anointed one.” In light of the parallelism with “your people” in the preceding line this could refer to Israel, but elsewhere the Lord’s anointed one is always an individual. The Davidic king is the more likely referent here.

[3:13]  ⁶⁶ tn Heb “you strike the head from the house of wickedness.”

[3:13]  ⁶⁷ tn Heb “laying bare [from] foundation to neck.”